


Glace

by sylvermyth



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2016-11-09
Packaged: 2018-08-30 01:37:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8513695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylvermyth/pseuds/sylvermyth
Summary: The first competitions were fun, the cheers of the crowd making his heart swell, the lights and cameras an exciting new prospect. He pushed himself, spent hours on the ice to be better, to learn anything he could, so he could master the ice.Except, it wasn’t enough. His competitors were lackluster, at best. Winning was empty, but he kept doing it, anyway, because it was all he could do.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So, it was only a matter of time before this happened. Here's to me getting my feet wet in the YOI fandom. Surprise, surprise, it's about my smol angry son.

Yuri couldn’t pinpoint when skating had gone from a fun pastime to what it was now. He could clearly remember skating with his grandfather, the pure exhilaration of it. Skating outside in the dead of winter, snow falling softly around him, feeling the cold stinging his face before being called to the banks of the little pond. The rink in his hometown, and the early mornings with ice so fresh it gleamed, the sound of his blades scraping into it, the small piles of ice shavings. The lines made in the ice as he practiced his edges, circles as he learned to control his turns and spins.

It had been a calling, and he was good at it. More than good. They took him to train at the same rink as Victor Nikiforov, Russia’s star skater. They encouraged him to compete.

The first competitions were fun, the cheers of the crowd making his heart swell, the lights and cameras an exciting new prospect. He pushed himself, spent hours on the ice to be _better_ , to learn anything he could, so he could master the ice.

Except, it wasn’t enough. His competitors were lackluster, at best. Winning was empty, but he kept doing it, anyway, because it was all he could do. Yakov discouraged him from adding a quad to his programs, but he could _do it_ , he could land quads. Not Victor’s insane program with four of them, no, he hadn’t gotten there yet, but _he would_. It was only a matter of time.

And Victor had _promised_ to choreograph a program for him. Once he was ready to compete as a senior, and Yuri was _ready_. Maybe then it would be fun again. Victor was a pain in the ass, but would create a program worth skating, for Yuri.

He’d promised.

And then Yuuri Katsuki happened.

The Japanese Yuuri was a solid skater, good even; he had to be, to make it to the Grand Prix Final. But he’d choked. Anyone could see he had been off his game, and then when Yuri had discovered the other crying in the bathroom stall…it had grated on him. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it made him burn in anger.

Perhaps it was the thought of more disappointing competitions. Perhaps, he thought that even a promising skater like Yuuri Katsuki could fail had pushed a sliver of doubt into Yuri’s mind. And then he’d been intimidated by Yuri!? Well, then he deserved it. A weakling.

He almost forgot about the Japanese Yuuri. The skating season kept him busy all winter, and he was already working on his quads in practice, in anticipation for the next season. There was little time to spare his thoughts for a failure. The skating community had nearly forgotten him, as well, their focus on the season’s top contenders, rather than the fallen.

But it turned out that even failures could attract their attention. Yuuri Katsuki proved that with his perfect execution of Victor’s program.

He was clearly not in competitive shape, his future as a skater all but gone, and yet he managed to replicate the program. It was different from his performances at the Grand Prix Final, even Yuri could tell that, but he never would’ve thought it was enough to warrant Victor’s sudden interest and departure for Japan.

The bastard.

Actually, they were both fucking bastards. What right did Victor have to abandon him, to abandon his promise to Yuri, and what right did Yuuri Katsuki have to make him?

Fuck them both.

And yet Yuri found himself drawn to Japan, too. To see what the fuss was all about. To chase Victor down to make him do Yuri’s program. He didn’t really need a reason. Practice had long ago become stale for him.

It quickly became clear that Victor had found a new muse and forgotten all about his promise to Yuri. Yuri wasn’t sure what to do with that information at first, and fought it. The competition between him and Japanese Yuuri…he would convince Victor that he’d made a mistake. That he had to come back to Russia, where he belonged, and make good on his promise. Victor was supposed to coach _him_.

 _Agape_.

It went against his style. He didn’t feel the serenity that the program called for. He felt bitter and angry, at being treated so flippantly, at having to fly all the way to Japan, at an unsatisfying competitive career. He couldn’t find it, the unconditional love of _Agape_.

And then he did.

The pounding of the waterfall brought him the beginnings of a kind of peace, reminded him of those days on the ice when he skated to impress his grandfather. Yeah. That was it. If he could just grab those feelings and let them flow into the program—

He couldn’t. The program that Victor set for him was too difficult to focus on his feelings when he was putting so much effort into executing the elements properly. It was an abject failure, and there Victor was, fucking _praising_ him for having his best skate—what the fuck? He _had_ to have seen Yuri’s struggle. He was watching, wasn’t he?

Was he too preoccupied with the other Yuuri?

Or maybe he just didn’t see it. Did he not see it?

If he couldn’t see how much _shit_ Yuri skated, then what good would he be to Yuri? What did Victor even know about Yuri?

A realization dawned on Yuri suddenly, and he clung to it as he packed his suitcase.

He didn’t belong in Japan. Victor wouldn’t be his coach.

And Yuri would be damned if he lived in Victor’s shadow, even if it was the shadow cast by Victor’s new prodigy.

His home ice felt different, when he stepped onto it again. It felt…fresh. Something had changed. Yuri was changing.

He’d have to grasp that, before it disappeared.


End file.
